- The invasive sour fig from South Africa is now an environmental crisis for Alderney Channel Island, its Wildlife Trust said.
- Facts have proved that the beautiful yellow vygies can adapt well to the new environment in many parts of the northern hemisphere.
- Due to climate change, the frost on Alderney Island has decreased, and it has grown extremely fast.
- The island is withdrawing large amounts of oil, but fears that if there is no more dramatic intervention, it may lose the war.
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Sometime before 1953, a resident of Alderney Island (one of the British Protected Channel Islands) began to agree with the South African gardener: vygies are a must Ornamental plants.More than half a century later, the islanders called it In less than ten years, the dune coverage of sour figs has doubled – And it is considered an environmental emergency that requires drastic measures.
last weekend The Alderney Wildlife Trust has extracted 3 to 4 tons of lightweight succulentsAs part of Continued efforts on several coastlines of Channel Island Stop it, thereby protecting native wildflowers and the fauna that depend on them.
But volunteers said that with climate change, they are failing in the fight against exponential spread, because frost is the only factor that prevents the growth of these plants, and frost is becoming increasingly rare due to climate change.
Now, the Wildlife Trust hopes to effectively make vygies illegal by prohibiting any spread before it is “too late.”
Various types of South African vygies are easy to grow in a variety of conditions and soil types and require little maintenance. They can be easily propagated by cutting small pieces from the plant. Activists say that in the Channel Islands, some of this spread is carried out by birds, rabbits and even wind, which opened up new dunes for the Vigie invasion.
Because of its shallow roots, it is easy to pull out, but removing it is a labor-intensive task because Groups far away in Tunisia with California have discovered. Even if it is removed, The changes it causes in soil chemistry make it difficult for native plants to re-establish themselves.
That’s already there Marked as “one of the most problematic invasive plant species in Europe”Especially because Experiments in Spain show that it is very good at mutation To take advantage of climate change.
In Alderney, the wheel is now passing legislation to eliminate vygies-and South Africa continues to use it as a convenient way to bind sand or as a ground cover for gardens.
(Compiled by Phillip de Wet)
